Hyphenating your last name and your spouse’s last name is a popular compromise that allows you to keep using your own surname while adopting your spouse’s surname. This can be done by shifting your current last name to your middle name while taking your spouse’s last name or creating a hyphenated last name.
To change your name, you need to fill out Form SS-5 and bring it to your local Social Security Administration office with your identification, proof of name change like your marriage certificate or court record. Some women prefer to drop their maiden name and adopt their husband’s last name as their new surname. To do this, you need to get a physical copy of your marriage certificate, which is a legal document that verifies your marriage occurred at a specific date and location.
After the wedding is over, you will need your marriage certificate to initiate the change. The document lets you legally take your partners’ surname or a combination of your two last names after marriage. Name change through hyphenation is legal and valid as taking your partner’s last name as-is.
In summary, hyphenating your last name and your spouse’s last name is a popular compromise for people who want to keep both names after marriage. To change your name, you need to obtain a certified copy of your marriage license, proof of citizenship, a valid passport, and your birth certificate. It is important to understand proper etiquette when writing, sending, and addressing letters in a married couple.
📹 Did you change, keep or hyphenate your last name after marriage? Webisode #2.4
Emmy award-winning TV journalist Joyce Brewer of http://MommyTalkShow.com asks talk show guests if they decided to change, …
How do you combine last names for marriage?
In most states, you can take your spouse’s last name, hyphenate it, use two last names without a hyphen, or move your maiden name to your middle name and take your spouse’s last name.
Know your name change options before your big day. What is a combined last name? A merged last name is a new last name made by combining your last name and your spouse’s last name.
What are the rules for hyphenated last names?
What are examples of hyphenated last names? Which comes first in a hyphenated last name? There are no rules or etiquette for how your hyphenated last name will read. You can list your maiden name first or your new last name first, followed by your original last name. Some couples change to hyphenated last names to show unity and equality. Can you have two last names if your partner only has one? Yes. Let’s look at an example. Alex Atkinson marries Taylor Lloyd. They could change their name(s) in these ways:
- Alex Atkinson-Lloyd
- Taylor Atkinson-Lloyd
- Taylor Lloyd-Atkinson
- Alex Lloyd-Atkinson
How do hyphenated last names work in marriage?
How do you hyphenate your last name? To hyphenate your last name after your wedding, you’ll need your marriage certificate. The document lets you take your partner’s last name or a combination of your last names after marriage. Learn about having two last names after marriage.
We have products to help you enjoy life’s biggest moments. Links on this page may earn us a commission. You might be hesitant to take your partner’s name after marriage. You’re not alone. Some people have a successful career with a well-known name. Some people just want to keep their original surname or have strong ties to their family. But what if you want to honor your union and your new family roots? How do you choose between the two? In all these cases and many more, a hyphenated last name may be the perfect solution.
How do you add your husband’s last name?
Texas law. After marriage, you can take your spouse’s last name without a court order. Most organizations in the U.S. will accept a marriage license as proof of the name change. This is true even if the marriage license lists your old name. You can only change your name to certain types of names. The Texas Administrative Code (TAC) Title 37, Rule 15.23 governs name changes on Texas driver licenses and IDs. It waives the court order requirement if you want to:
Change your last name to your spouse’s last name; change your last name to your spouse’s last name and your middle name to your current last name; or add your spouse’s last name to your current last name in hyphenated form.
Can I have two last names without a hyphen?
The Dutch also double surnames. The name of Dutch footballer Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink is an example. The Guardian says his name comes from two farming families in the Enschede area of the Netherlands who married each other. Both names were important, so they kept both. In Dutch, “or” means “and,” so a strict translation of his name is Jan Vennegoor or Hesselink. Some of these Dutch surnames also exist in South Africa. For example, the rugby player Rohan Janse van Rensburg’s surname is Janse van Rensburg, not just van Rensburg. Wives were often known by their husbands’ surnames and their original names, hyphenated. Today, couples can choose any combination of surnames for official use. Their legal name will remain unchanged. Most wives use a hyphenated surname or their original name. Few husbands use a hyphenated surname. All children of a couple have the same last name. They don’t usually have a hyphenated last name.
Scandinavia Denmark has a tradition of double surnames. This was because two laws made it so that commoners had to use surnames that they could pass down to their children. The first of these laws was passed in 1771 for the Duchy of Schleswig, and the second was passed in 1828 for Denmark. Most people chose their patronymic as their last name, which led to a few surnames being used a lot. Danes started using their mothers’ original names as middle names to avoid confusion. This is similar to the Russian or Hispanic system, but different from the English system. Three Danish prime ministers have the same last name, Rasmussen. They are usually called Nyrup, Fogh, and Løkke.
What is the proper way to file a hyphenated last name?
Hyphenated names are one unit. Ignore the hyphen and alphabetize the first part of the hyphenated name. Don’t include ampersands (&) between two or more proper names. File by first name.
Can you hyphenate your last name after marriage?
You don’t need a court order to take your spouse’s last name or combine it with yours. If you want a new last name, you must follow a formal legal name change process.
Can I hyphenate my last name after marriage?
How to hyphenate your last name. You can hyphenate your name regardless of your gender or marital status. Mary White and Lauren Holland will hyphenate their names when they marry. Mary could change her name to Mary White-Holland or Mary Holland-White, and Laurens name would change similarly. You just have to decide which name sounds better before or after the hyphen. Hyphenating your name has pros and cons. If you’re debating whether to hyphenate your last name, consider these pros and cons: Pros: The best of both: You can keep your birth name and add your partner’s. Professional identity: Hyphenation is a practical way to keep your name known. It’s also easier to trace your ancestry. Genealogists will be able to trace your lineage. If you have children together, your surname will carry on for at least another generation. Online forms: Some databases won’t allow a space between two last names, but they’ll recognize a hyphenated name.
How do you arrange your name after marriage?
Use your spouse’s last name. You can use your spouse’s last name right away. Send your marriage certificate to any organization that has a record of you. Your records will be updated for free. Many people change their surname after marriage. Some take their spouse’s last name, and some couples combine surnames. Some wives take their husbands’ surnames but keep their maiden names as middle names. Changing your name is easy, but it depends on why and where you live. Go to the county clerk’s office where you were married. Get copies of your marriage certificate to change your name. Your state might have short- and long-form marriage certificates. Get the long form.
Can I double barrel my name after marriage?
Double-barreling your last name. If you’re getting married and want to double-barrel your surname, you can do this with your marriage certificate. If you marry and combine the surnames Brown and Jones into Jones-Brown, this should be fine. If you add more elements to the name or middle names, you need a deed poll. Some companies and institutions may still have issues with double-barrelling. Applying for a passport first is a good idea. It’s cheaper and accepted by all UK companies. You only need one document to make all the changes.
Changing your names as an unmarried couple. Some couples change their names to look like they’re married without getting married. This is fine, as long as it’s not done for fraud. This won’t give you the legal rights of being married.
What are the disadvantages of having two last names?
Hyphenated names: You must use both. If you hyphenate your last name, you must use it all the time. … They’re long. … Kids can be tricky. Are you thinking about hyphenated names as a name change after marriage? Hyphenating names is less popular now than it was in the 1970s. Here are three reasons not to take both last names as a newlywed. New Spouse, New Name, New Journey: Embrace your new married life. Personalized name change services for every newlywed.
1. You must use both. If you hyphenate your last name, you must use it all the time. The dash is like crazy glue, keeping your names together forever, even if you’re tired of saying them both.
📹 Here’s Why Women Should Take Their Husband’s Last Name
After stating that women should take their husband’s last name when getting married, I found myself at the center of a Twitter …
So why does it only go one way? Why does she have to take YOUR name, and you can not consider taking her name? Why should women always take the man’s name and never the other way around? It’s just BS. Sounds like a power trip to me. Old-fashioned with no real reason behind it. It definitely should be a choice, as neither are the other person’s property in a marriage. I like my last name because NO ONE else in the world has my full name and because it is the name I’ve always had. I have kept BOTH of my parents’ last names. Just because it was always custom for the women to take the fathers’ or husbands’ names, does not mean it always has to stay that way. In some cases, especially when the fathers are not even in the picture – the children should take the mother’s last name for sure. They will have more connection to that. A family name in the older days didn’t even get chosen because of the MAN, they often chose the name of the place they came from, like a farm or village for instance. That way it makes sense for the whole family to have that last name, but the moment a daughter married another man – they lost that and took his instead. Makes no sense and she will have no connection to it. My name – sure, it is my father’s family’s last name, but the name itself came from the PLACE his family came from. It is still the name of that village today. So in a way, it makes a lot more sense to KEEP my last name, than some random last name from my husband’s family whose history I have no connection to at all.
I have always taken the opposite view. Men should take the last name of women. Since she will give birth to the children, the children should bear her last name. We can’t deny reality and it’s a fact that divorce is very common these days. After a divorce, most of the time the children remain with the mother. It therefore makes sense if the woman keeps her name and the children are also called by her last name. (BTW, I’m divorced, but I still have my former husband’s last name. Why? Because it didn’t matter to me whether he would take my family’s last name or I the name of his. If you argue about things like this, you shouldn’t get married in the first place.)
Sorry, but I’m going to have to point out that this article is a little sloppy. I’m a newlywed woman dragging my feet about changing my last name, and it has nothing to do with “the patriarchy” or spite or cats or lack of commitment or anything of the things mentioned here. It’s just two reasons: cultural identity and logistics. My last name represents my culture, and I love my husband and want us to share a name as a family, but that does represent me letting go of a name that represents me and my family and culture and background, and that’s not easy to do. It’s also a matter of logistics as far as filing all the paperwork and changing names on all my legal and professional documents and credit cards and everything. Not impossible and there are services that make it a little easier, but it’s still a pain in the butt and almost inevitable that I’m going to forget one along the way and that’s going to create an issue in the future. I also find it interesting that there’s no mention of the fact that a woman changing her last name isn’t even a thing in all cultures worldwide and not even present in all European cultures. In fact, in some of the most patriarchal cultures, the woman keeps her last name. So to me, this article is missing the mark and seems to me like he’s intentionally chosing the most ridiculous reasons a woman would not want to change her name and sailing right over some pretty valid reasons.
I disagree with you this time, Matt. Not every culture has this. I still think it’s a woman’s choice, and I’m not talking about identity, or ownership; in my case, I think it’s important to keep my name due to family legacy, and if I get married, I think I will take my husband’s last name together with my last name, just as my mother does. In the Venezuelan culture, this is normal. My sisters-in-law really love my brothers and are amazing Christian wives following God’s principles, and neither of them took their name. This doesn’t mean they’re deal breakers or anything like that; there aren’t better women for them than the ones they chose. It’s still a woman’s decision, although I agree women should make this decision based on the right reasons.